This application is based on Application No. 2001-131959, filed in Japan on Apr. 27, 2001, the contents of which are hereby incorporated by reference.
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a drive recorder system that records the data of a traveling vehicle.
2. Description of the Related Art
A conventional drive recorder system will be described with reference to FIG. 5. FIG. 5 is a diagram showing the structure of a conventional drive recorder system disclosed in, for example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 8-331157.
In FIG. 5, reference numeral 1 denotes a measuring device that has a plurality of sensors 1S and measures the travel state of a vehicle, numeral 2 indicates a recording device that records data D outputted from the measuring device 1, numeral 3 indicates a control device that controls an actuator and the like in accordance with the data D, numeral 4 indicates an in-vehicle LAN that mutually connects the recording device 2 and the control device 3. Although there are a variety of control devices 3, they will be omitted from the figure.
Next, the operation of the conventional driver recorder system will be described with reference to FIG. 5.
In the conventional drive recorder system thus structured, when the vehicle starts to travel, the travel sensor D calculated on the basis of the detection signals from the sensors 1S is outputted to the in-vehicle LAN 4 from the measuring device 1 at a given timing. The data D outputted to the in-vehicle LAN 4 is transmitted to the recording device 2 and the control device 3. The control device 3 controls the actuator and the like on the basis of the received data D. Also, the recording device 2 records the received data D in a memory.
In the case where the above-described conventional drive recorder system is applied to an existing vehicle in which the vehicle control devices are connected to each other by the in-vehicle LAN 4, it is necessary that the recording device 2 as well as the measuring device 1 should be connected to the in-vehicle LAN 4 in addition to the vehicle control device 3 mounted in the vehicle in advance. For that reason, there arises such a problem that the costs and weight of the entire vehicle increase.
Also, in the case where the conventional drive recorder system is applied to the existing vehicle in which a plurality of in-vehicle LANs are connected by a gateway, there has been proposed, for example, a method in which at least one measuring device is arranged on each of the in-vehicle LANs, and the recording device is arranged in a specific in-vehicle LAN. In this case, the data from the measuring device connected to each of the in-vehicle LANs is transmitted to the in-vehicle LAN which is connected with the recording device through the gateway. For that reason, there arises a problem that the communication load on the in-vehicle LAN connected with the recording device is concentratingly increased.
In addition, in the case where the conventional drive recorder system is applied to the existing vehicle in which the vehicle control devices are connected to each other by the in-vehicle LAN, there arises a problem that the communication load on the in-vehicle LAN becomes higher than that before the drive recorder system is applied by the amount of communications of the data outputted to the recording device from the-measuring device.
The present invention has been made to solve the above-mentioned problems in the conventional system, and therefore a first object of the present invention is to provide a drive recorder system that requires no measuring device unlike the conventional system in the case where a drive recorder system is applied to an existing vehicle in which vehicle control devices are connected to each other by an in-vehicle LAN.
A second object of the present invention is to provide a drive recorder system that does not concentratingly increase the communication load on a specific in-vehicle LAN unlike the conventional system.
A third object of the present invention is to provide a drive recorder system that can suppress an increase in the communication load of the in-vehicle LAN in the case where the drive recorder system is applied to the existing vehicle in which the vehicle control devices are connected to each other by the in-vehicle LAN.
In order to achieve the above object, according to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a drive recorder system comprising: a vehicle control device that conducts arithmetic operation on the basis of input information from sensors and outputs an arithmetic operation result to an actuator to control a vehicle; first and second in-vehicle LANs each of which is connected with at least one of said vehicle control devices; a gateway that mutually connects said first and second in-vehicle LANs to enable communication; and a recording device that is mounted on said gateway and records data outputted from said vehicle control device.
According to a second aspect of the present invention, there is provided a drive recorder system in which said vehicle control device outputs the data to said recording device at a predetermined cycle, and in which said recording device records the data transmitted from said vehicle control device at the predetermined cycle.
According to a third aspect of the present invention, there is provided a drive recorder system in which said vehicle control device outputs the data to said recording device at an arbitrary cycle, and in which said recording device records the data transmitted from said vehicle control device at the arbitrary cycle.
According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, there is provided a drive recorder system in which said recording device inquires of said vehicle control device an output of the data at a predetermined cycle, records the data transmitted in response to the output inquiry, and in which said vehicle control device outputs the data to said recording device in response to the output inquiry of said recording device.
According to a fifth aspect of the present invention, there is provided a drive recorder system in which said recording device inquires of said vehicle control device an output of the data at an arbitrary cycle, records the data transmitted in response to the output inquiry, and in which said vehicle control device outputs the data to said recording device in response to the output inquiry of said recording device.
According to a sixth aspect of the present invention, there is provided a drive recorder system further comprising a sensor node that is connected to said first in-vehicle LAN and measures a vehicle travel state by a sensor, and in which said recording device records the data outputted from said vehicle control device and a sensor detection value outputted from said sensor node.
According to a seventh aspect of the present invention, there is provided a drive recorder system in which said vehicle control device transmits the data to another vehicle control device and receives the data transmitted from said another vehicle control device, and in which said recording device refers to transmit/receive data between the vehicle control devices which is transmitted on said first and second in-vehicle LANs, and records at least a part of the transmit/receive data.
According to an eighth aspect of the present invention, there is provided a drive recorder system in which said recording device includes arithmetically operating means for arithmetically operating the data outputted from said vehicle control device and records the arithmetic operation result of said arithmetically operating means together with the data.